Epic Charity Cycle Rides: Help by Doing the Thing You Love

If you follow all things cycling, you’ll often come across the phrase ‘epic cycle ride’. I’m not talking about Le […]

By Christopher AshleyJanuary 7, 2019 at 11:48 am5 min reading

If you follow all things cycling, you’ll often come across the phrase ‘epic cycle ride’. I’m not talking about Le Tour de France where we pay professional athletes to compete at the very limits of endurance. I’m talking about the passionate amateur who does it to raise money and awareness for a worthwhile cause.

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Pegleg – the one-legged surfer

Having your leg amputated as a baby means you’re effectively born with hardship – but as soon as he was legally old enough, Pegleg decided to make a cultural, legal, and very personal statement by changing and adopting his infamous name. With one leg and a drinking buddy to help spread the effort, Pegleg embarked on a 900-mile ride to raise money for The Handstand Appeal.

As I'm back in sunny Cornwall I felt I'd put together a video better explaining what the guys are up to. I'll be doing more but this is especially for the top of the page as an introduction for any new followers. Hope you enjoy.

Coming from Cornwall, the smuggling capital and wild west of the UK, Pegleg wasn’t one to see disabilities – only challenges. As a member of the English Adaptive Surf Team, Pegleg appears to see life as one epic adventure, one wave to be surfed. If you thought your double century was epic, try 900 miles with just one leg!

Sushil Reddy – The Sun Trip

The We Love Cycling team was introduced to Sushil Reddy back in early 2017. Since then, we’ve seen the tenacious engineer and cyclist raise awareness of renewable energy, helping install renewable energy sources in villages across India. Sushil achieved this by riding vast distances by pedal and sun-power alone.

Sushil has even written a fascinating book of his adventures and been a welcome guest all over the world – he’s received a Scholarship of Excellence from HEC Paris and finished his travels in the USA, giving a presentation at the Solar Power International Conference in Las Vegas.

Andy Funk – 365-mile ride for breast cancer charity

When your wife is a surgical breast specialist, you may expect to learn a thing or two about the ravages of breast cancer. But what caught Andy Funk’s attention more than anything else, was the plight of low-income women, many of whom couldn’t afford health insurance. So, Andy founded the Pink Lotus Foundation and put on a cycling spectacle to kick-start awareness.

Andy isn’t the kind of chap who does things by halves. This ride took 365 miles, nonstop, in the blistering Nevada sun. We Love Cycling gave Andy additional Epic-Ride-Points™ for the beautiful pink bike – and matching entourage.

Paris To Hayling Cycle Ride

The Paris to Hayling Ride has raised over £1.5 million since it started in 1986. More, if you account for inflation. But what makes this ride even more epic is that it tips its cap to England, the birthplace of cycling as we know it, and France – the spiritual home of sports cycling.

This video shows the ride setting off in France on Bastille Day, and the French Airforce pay homage to the ride with a flyby. Two hundred riders set off, some taking the athletic challenge more seriously than others. This particular team seems more interested in building bridges with the French locals – and their bars. It just goes to show that anyone can do something epic, in their own little way.

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